Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/22

 Ufford years, and the patent rolls of the young king contain abundant evidence of his constant activity in local commissions and similar business in Norfolk and Suffolk. In 1377 and in 1378 he was again fighting the French. On 18 June 1378 he received letters of attorney (Fœdera, iv. 45), and followed Lancaster to Brittany, taking part in the siege of Saint-Malo in November of that year (, ix. 64), while a patent of 16 June 1378 refers to his share in ‘the late engagement at sea’ (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1377–81, p. 4). He transferred himself to Scotland when Lancaster was made lieutenant of the Scottish march, and on 6 Sept. 1380 he was one of the commissioners appointed to compose differences and give satisfaction for injuries arising out of the breach of the truce (Fœdera, iv. 96).

Suffolk played a prominent part with reference to the peasants' revolt of 1381. When Geoffrey (wrongly called John) Litster [see ] rose in revolt at North Walsham, and marched on 17 June towards Norwich, Suffolk was staying at one of his Norfolk manors, probably Costessey, which is very near the line of march and about four miles from Norwich. He was so popular with the commons that they formed the design to seize him and put him at their head. Suffolk was at supper when he first learnt the sudden approach of the rebels. He rose at once from table and succeeded in effecting his escape. He disguised himself as the squire of Sir Roger de Boys, a friend who was afterwards his executor, and, avoiding the highways, he rode as hard as he could to St. Albans, whence he joined the king in London (, ii. 5; Chron. Angliæ, p. 305). The rebels at once turned towards Norwich, whereupon the affrighted citizens sent four of their number to Suffolk, asking for his advice and guidance. But the earl had already fled the county.

In the troubles that followed Suffolk was not spared. On 21 June the rebels destroyed his title-deeds at his manor of Burgh (, Le Soulèvement des Travailleurs d'Angleterre, p. 114), while on 28 June the Suffolk insurgents burnt his title-deeds and court rolls at his manors of Hollesley and Bawdsey, near Ipswich. Before this, however, Suffolk was back in East Anglia. The king commissioned him, with Bishop Despenser and others, to suppress the eastern revolts. Suffolk lost no time, and as early as 23 June he was at Bury, attended by a force of five hundred lances. Suffolk's first work was to remove the heads of Chief-justice Cavendish and the prior of Bury, which the rebels had set up over the pillory. But the revolt was already checked, and the trials of the rebels began at once. After three days at Bury, Suffolk removed to Mildenhall, where he also held trials on 27 June. In the days that followed he was occupied in the same work at other Suffolk towns, and on 9 July was holding inquests at Horning in Norfolk (, p. 131). On 29 July he was again holding trials at Bury (ib. p. 127). In all he held nineteen inquests, and at Bury alone 104 rebels were accused. Suffolk and three others were commissioned on 22 July to array the king's lieges against the rebels (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1381–5, p. 74). However, on 18 July Suffolk and his colleagues had already been ordered to suspend their processes (Fœdera, iv. 128), and on 19 Aug. the command was renewed in a more general and peremptory form ({sc|Réville}}, p. 158). On 14 Dec. he received a further commission to put down unlawful meetings and riots (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1381–5, p. 84). Sixteen rebels at least were executed in Suffolk, and still more in Norfolk.

On the breaking out of a fierce quarrel between John of Gaunt [q. v.] and his former ally, Henry Percy, first earl of Northumberland [q. v.], Suffolk attended the council at Berkhampstead in which the duke brought his charges against the earl, and, on the latter being ordered under arrest, Suffolk joined with Warwick in acting as his surety (, ii. 44; Chron. Angliæ, p. 329). Northumberland now became the favourite of the London mob, and Suffolk won back his old popularity. In the parliament that met on 3 Nov. he was again strenuous on the popular side, and towards the end of its sittings he was chosen to express the opinions of the commons to the lords. On 13 Feb. 1382 he died suddenly at Westminster Hall (, ii. 48; Chron. Angliæ, p. 333;, p. 35). He was buried at Campsey Priory, ‘behind the tomb of my honourable father and mother.’ His will, dated 12 June 1381, was proved at Lambeth on 24 Feb. 1382. It is summarised in Nicolas's ‘Testamenta Vetusta’ (pp. 114–115). To his father's estates he added in 1380 those of the Norwiches from his mother, including Mettingham Castle, near Bungay.

Suffolk is praised by Walsingham for the amiability which he showed to all throughout his whole life (Hist. Angl. ii. 49). This is no conventional form of eulogy, for no one among his contemporaries made himself so universally beloved by different parties. Though the champion of the commons in 1376 and 1382, he remained the friend and companion in arms of the unpopular John of Gaunt. The revolted villeins of Norfolk